Data Center & Cloud Innovation Awards

The ET NOW Data Center & Cloud Innovation Awards is a premier celebration of visionary organizations and trailblazing individuals reshaping the digital landscape. In an era where data is the new currency and cloud technologies drive transformation, these awards honor those at the forefront of innovation, recognizing their exceptional contributions in leveraging cutting-edge solutions to create a smarter, more connected world.

These awards shine a spotlight on excellence across multiple sectors, acknowledging groundbreaking initiatives that are revolutionizing how businesses harness data and cloud infrastructure. From cloud-native architectures to AI-driven Data Centers, this prestigious ceremony celebrates the pioneers who are redefining what’s possible through scalable, secure, and future-ready digital ecosystems.

Whether it’s elevating business efficiency, transforming customer experiences, or unlocking new revenue streams, the ET NOW Data Center & Cloud Innovation Awards 2024 recognizes the game changers who are leading the charge in shaping the digital future.

Description: Recognizes transformative projects that automate cloud provisioning, orchestration, and monitoring, delivering speed, consistency, and cost control. 

Requirements: 

  • Live deployment in past 12 months 
  • Metrics: deployment frequency, time-to-deploy, error reduction 
  • Evidence of CI/CD pipelines, Infrastructure-as-Code

Description: Celebrates cutting-edge data center initiatives leveraging next-gen technology (modular, liquid-cooled, software-defined). 

Requirements: 

  • Operational project 
  • Technical innovation details (architecture, tools) 
  • Scalability, resilience, uptime improvements 
  • Quantitative outcomes: cost, performance

Description: Honors localized compute deployments at the edge that support latency-sensitive workloads like IoT and real-time analytics. 

Requirements: 

  • Live edge DC serving defined workloads 
  • Latency metrics, bandwidth usage, location benefit 
  • Use case: real-time data processing, local autonomy 
  • Business impact: improved performance or local compliance

Description: Recognizes forward-looking data center designs built for modular expansion, energy resiliency, and evolving technology support. 

Requirements: 

  • Design features: redundancy, modularity, scalable power/cooling 
  • Resilience metrics: uptime, redundancy levels 
  • Renewable energy use or on-site generation 
  • Future expansion plan and strategy 

Description: Highlights structural and operational excellence in data center builds—architecture, cabling, airflow, and sustainability. 

Requirements: 

  • Engineering documentation: layout plans, cooling calculations 
  • PUE or equivalent efficiency metrics 
  • Structural design for space, resilience, micro zoning 
  • Visual and technical evidence 

Description: For data centers that lead in sustainable operations—renewable energy, recycling, carbon tracking. 

Requirements: 

  • PUE and carbon reduction stats 
  • Green certifications or standards adherence 
  • Renewable energy or green credits 
  • Sustainability governance (ESG goals, reporting) 

Description: Recognizes data centers enhanced by AI/ML for predictive maintenance, workload optimization, or anomaly detection. 

Requirements: 

  • Details of AI/ML use in operations 
  • Predictive maintenance or control loop metrics 
  • Improvements: downtime reduction, energy usage 
  • Model accuracy or contributions 

Description: Highlights innovative cooling systems—liquid cooling, free-air, thermal recycling. 

Requirements: 

  • Energy use before/after implementation 
  • PUE and cost savings 
  • Scalability and ROI details 
  • Technical diagrams 

Description: Awards eco-conscious builds integrating sustainable construction, materials, and biodiversity. 
Requirements: 

  • Building specs: materials, water/energy conservation 
  • Certifications: IGBC/LEED 
  • ESG compliance, lifecycle impact summary 
  • Operational and adoption metrics 

Description: For enterprise implementations of robust and effective IaaS in production. 

Requirements: 

  • Cloud scope details: regions, capacity 
  • Metrics: uptime, cost efficiency, usage 
  • Security compliance 
  • Business benefits: agility, speed, scalability 

Description: Recognizes vertical-specific cloud transformations delivering compliance, performance, or innovation. 

Requirements: 

  • Tailored use case (e.g., BFSI, Pharma) 
  • Compliance adherence (e.g. HIPAA, RBI) 
  • KPIs: cost, speed, user satisfaction 
  • Sector-specific benefits

Description: Celebrates intelligent monitoring, anomaly detection, cost optimization, or demand forecasting in cloud environments. 

Requirements: 

  • AI/ML tool overview 
  • Metrics: cost saving, prediction accuracy 
  • Automation loop and tool integration 
  • Operational improvements 

Description: For enterprises implementing exemplary security frameworks in cloud—encryption, IAM, Zero Trust. 

Requirements: 

  • Technologies used, architecture details 
  • Compliance adherence (GDPR, ISO, etc.) 
  • Security results: breaches prevented, MTTR 
  • Third-party audits or certifications 

Description: Highlights effective governance and management tools around tagging, policy, and cost control. 

Requirements: 

  • Governance structure, process chain 
  • Tagging coverage and enforcement metrics 
  • Platform tools and ROI/profitability impact 
  • User adoption stats 

Description: Recognizes seamless integration of public, private, and on-prem/cloud infrastructures. 

Requirements: 

  • Hybrid architecture details 
  • Workload migration patterns 
  • Latency/cost benefit measurements 
  • Operational scalability and automation 

Description: For initiatives upgrading legacy DCs with automation, cabling, cooling, or management tools. 

Requirements: 

  • Upgrade details & outcomes 
  • Metrics: cost reduction, efficiency 
  • Before/after PUE, downtime stats 
  • Operational or architectural diagrams

Description: Honors enterprise edge installations by OEMs enabling local compute scalability. 

Requirements: 

  • Deployment site details 
  • QoS metrics: latency, throughput 
  • Business use cases (IoT, retail, etc.) 
  • ROI and rollout strategy 

Description: Recognizes fully private cloud builds ensuring data locality, control, and compliance. 

Requirements: 

  • Architecture details & data control mechanisms 
  • Compliance evidence (e.g. government regulations) 
  • Security and governance models 
  • Business benefits (performance, trust)

Description: For impactful BI/data pipelines and analytics stack operating on cloud/DC. 

Requirements: 

  • Solution stack and use cases 
  • Metrics: query time, data volume, ROI 
  • Business insight examples 
  • Visuals of dashboards 

Description: Recognizes containerized, microservices-based applications driving agility and scalability. 

Requirements: 

  • Architecture diagrams 
  • DevOps pipeline effectiveness metrics 
  • Performance improvements or cost optimizations 
  • Use case and adoption details

Description: For comprehensive governance programs ensuring policy, compliance, and data control across infrastructure. 

Requirements: 

  • Governance framework description 
  • Compliance audit results 
  • Coverage and enforcement metrics 
  • Risk reduction examples

Description: Celebrates enterprise adoption of Zero Trust architecture within cloud or hybrid environments. 

Requirements: 

  • Architecture & enforcement model 
  • Security controls implemented 
  • Incidents prevented, audit metrics 
  • User / operational adoption 

Description: For projects prioritizing carbon reduction, workload shifting, and renewable usage in cloud deployments. 

Requirements: 

  • Carbon savings measurement 
  • Renewable usage % 
  • Cost/energy comparison 
  • Sustainability policy framework 

Description: Recognizes systems that dynamically schedule workloads based on location and carbon intensity. 

Requirements: 

  • Scheduling logic or tool used 
  • Carbon reduction data 
  • Operational trade-offs 
  • Business outcomes 

For all awards: 

  • Eligibility: Must be live or substantially operational within the last 12 months. 
  • Supporting materials: Up to 3 documents (PDF/PPT/case study) 
  • Metrics required: Min. 3 quantitative data points (cost, energy, performance, etc.) and qualitative outcomes. 
  • Submission: Internal approval by CIO/CTO or nominated leader. 

Description: Recognizes an individual who has introduced groundbreaking cloud solutions—pushing boundaries in automation, integration, or business impact. 

Nomination Requirements: 

  • Professional actively contributing to cloud-first initiatives in the past 12 months. 
  • Describe one or more innovations with significant business outcomes. 
  • Provide metrics (e.g., cost saved, time optimized, adoption rate). 
  • Include supporting materials (case study, presentation, video, testimonial). 
  • Must be current employee of the organization represented. 

Description: Celebrates an individual whose cloud work radically altered workflows, competitive positioning, or industry norms. 

Nomination Requirements: 

  • Demonstrate a project or innovation that produced a “gamechanging” impact. 
  • Provide evidence of market or internal transformation. 
  • Include quantitative evidence (e.g., revenue, performance, adoption). 
  • Include qualitative endorsements or user testimonials.

Description: Honors a leader who has driven strategic cloud adoption across the enterprise, delivering measurable transformation. 

Nomination Requirements: 

  • Lead role in an enterprise cloud transformation initiative in the last year. 
  • Share leadership approach, stakeholder alignment, and roadmap. 
  • Provide metrics like ROI, efficiency gains, migration scale. 
  • Include team endorsements or sponsor testimonials. 

Description: Celebrates a female cloud leader who has demonstrated technical excellence, leadership, or inspired others in cloud technology. 

Nomination Requirements: 

  • Female nominee in a mid-to-senior technical or leadership role. 
  • Provide details about cloud-impacting projects and leadership style. 
  • Include mentoring, advocacy, or diversity leadership evidence. 

Description: For young cloud professionals under 35 who have made outstanding contributions in cloud development or infrastructure. 

Nomination Requirements: 

  • Nominee must be under 35 years old. 
  • Demonstrate rapid impact in cloud-based projects or innovation. 
  • Provide metrics and project highlights. 
  • Include endorsements from managers or peers. 

Description: Recognizes an individual architecting robust, scalable, secure, and efficient cloud systems with adherence to best-practices. 

Nomination Requirements: 

  • Provide architectural diagrams and design rationale. 
  • Highlight scalability, redundancy, cloud-native patterns. 
  • Include performance or cost optimization metrics. 
  • Include peer or leadership statement of architectural excellence. 

Description: Honors excellence in managing and optimizing cloud infrastructure for reliability, performance, and security. 

Nomination Requirements: 

  • Outline major operational responsibilities. 
  • Provide metrics like uptime %, incident resolution time, cost control. 
  • Include examples of automation, monitoring or optimization. 

Description: Recognizes individuals running seamless operations across hybrid environments—public, private, and on-prem systems. 

Nomination Requirements: 

  • Describe scope and complexity of hybrid landscape. 
  • Provide latency, cost efficiency, and workload migration metrics. 
  • Share architecture diagrams and ecosystem optimization methods. 

Description: Honors a senior leader influencing cloud and data center strategy with visionary direction and business alignment. 

Nomination Requirements: 

  • Provide summary of strategic initiatives led. 
  • Share metrics like business growth, agility improvements. 
  • Include leadership philosophy and stakeholder alignment methods. 

Description: Celebrates cross-functional teams that collaboratively delivered outstanding cloud or DC transformations. 

Nomination Requirements: 

  • Describe team composition and roles. 
  • Showcase a major project outcome: measurable results, collaboration, innovation. 
  • Provide peer or leadership testimonials. 

Description: Honors individuals using cloud technology for positive social, environmental, or community impact. 

Nomination Requirements: 

  • Describe tech initiative and its mission impact. 
  • Provide metrics: number of beneficiaries, sustainability gains, community reach. 
  • Include endorsements from beneficiaries or NGOs. 

Description: Recognizes individuals enabling organizational sustainability goals through cloud or infrastructure tech. 

Nomination Requirements: 

  • Describe tech project and ESG alignment. 
  • Provide measurable impact (e.g., carbon reduction, energy efficiency). 
  • Include ESG reporting or certification linkage. 

Description: Celebrates individuals ensuring infrastructure continuity and resilience during disruptions or crises. 

Nomination Requirements: 

  • Describe incident or resilience strategy led. 
  • Provide metrics: RTO/RPO, uptime, failover readiness. 
  • Include lessons learned and governance structure overview. 

General Nomination Criteria 

  • Nominee must be an employee of the organization they represent. 
  • All achievements must be within the past 12 months. 
  • Provide at least two quantitative metrics demonstrating impact: cost, performance, adoption, sustainability. 
  • Include supporting materials: case study, presentation, video, testimonial (max 2 attachments, 10 MB each). 
  • Obtain nominee approval before submission. 
  • Deadline: [ Date]. No late or incomplete submissions accepted.
Register For The Awards

Secure your spot by registering today! Submit your nominations and get two free passes to the ET Edge Data Center & Cloud Innovation Summit 2025, scheduled in Mumbai.

STEP 01
Showcase Your Strengths - Choose The Categories

Choose the categories that best represent -

  • For Organization/Projects - Select the category that best represents your Organization’s Data Center & Cloud Innovation Initiatives for nomination. You can enter for multiple categories.
  • For Individual Awards - Select the category that best represents your contributions in Datacenter & Cloud Innovation, Datacenter & Cloud Operations, Digital Transformation, Technological Advancements and leadership. You may nominate yourself or another individual (e.g., A peer, founder, researcher, or mentor). You can enter for multiple categories.
STEP 02
Let Your Innovation Speak - Fill Up The Official Nomination Form

Fill out the official nomination form with all the required details. Ensure that your submission clearly highlights your achievements based on the category criteria.

Step 03
4. Confirm Your Spot - Finalise The Official Submission Form

For each category you enter, prepare a submission that meets the criteria. Submissions should be in a written format or video format (optional), addressing the specified criteria for each category.

Showcase your best work to earn the recognition from our Grand Jury Panel.

Step 04
5. Watch This Space - Stay Tuned!

After the entry deadline, our esteemed panel of judges will review all submissions to determine the finalists. Rest assured, we shall keep you informed on every step of the way.

Step 05

Call For Entries

22nd / 23rd July 2025

Entries Deadline

30th August 2025

Grand Jury Assessment

10th September 2025

Pricing

Standard Investment

For End-user organizations

Standard Investment

For IT/ITES, OEMs, and consulting firms

Starting November 18, 2024, the nomination fee will go up to

₹ 5000+ GST

Early Bird Offer

Save up to 50%! Submit your nomination by November 4, 2024, for just

₹2,500+ GST.

Second Early Bird Offer

Available until – 17th November 2024

₹ 3000+ GST

The following parameters will be used to evaluate the entries:

01
Innovation in Cloud or Data Centre Implementation
Evaluation of how effectively an organization has introduced novel and impactful solutions in their cloud infrastructure or data centre operations, leveraging the latest technologies to drive transformation. The uniqueness of the approach, including new architectures, automation techniques or integration of emerging technologies will give entrant an extra edge.
02
Customer-Centric Approach
Evaluation on how effectively an organization prioritizes customer needs and experience in the design, deployment and management of cloud/ data centre solutions & how the implementation addresses specific customer pain points, requirements and usability considerations.
03
Technical Capability & Agile Execution
Assessment of the Organization’s technical expertise, Depth of skills, Knowledge within the team related to cloud architectures, data centre technologies, automation, security and their ability to efficiently deliver cloud or data centre projects using agile methodologies, ensuring timely & high-quality outcomes.
04
Impact, Growth & Business Value
Evaluation of the measurable outcomes and business advantages realized through the Organization’s cloud or data centre initiatives. It highlights how these technological implementations have driven growth, operational excellence, improved customer acquisition/retention and deliver tangible value.

The ET Edge Data Center & Cloud Innovation Awards recognize & celebrates visionary organizations and trailblazing individuals who are reshaping the digital landscape. In an era where data is the new currency and cloud technologies drive transformation, these awards honour those who are at the forefront of innovation, recognizing their exceptional contributions in leveraging cutting-edge solutions to create a smarter, more connected world.

The ET Edge Data Center & Cloud Innovation Awards recognize Campaigns/Work/Decisions taken in the time duration of 1st April 2024 to 31st March 2025.

The ET Edge Data Center & Cloud Innovation Awards have no nomination fee. The Award Submission process is free of cost.

The last date to submit nominations for the ET Edge Data Center & Cloud Innovation Awards is 24th August 2025.

There is no limit for an entrant on the maximum number of categories. A key consideration is the originality and differentiation of each submission. For each entry, the entrant is required to share different initiatives/project and the resultant outcomes.

Visit our website & click on “Nominate Now” to register and begin your nomination using the online form. You can submit entries across multiple categories. Please ensure you adhere to the word limits specified for each section.

All entries will be treated with the utmost confidentiality. No information will be disclosed to anyone other than the Grand Jury Panel for evaluation. To further safeguard your data, all judges are required to sign a strict confidentiality agreement before they are granted access to any of the entries, ensuring that your information remains secure and private.

The ET Edge Data Center & Cloud Innovation Awards are open to a wide range of participants who have demonstrated impactful work in the field of Data Centre & Cloud Innovation Initiatives. Startups, SMEs, large enterprises, Solution Providers, Public sector institutions, Academic & Research Institutions, Data & Cloud Professionals operating in India who have implemented cloud technologies, modern data architectures or emerging infrastructure innovations to drive digital transformation, operational efficiency and scalable growth are eligible for the Participation. The Awards Participation is open exclusively to Indian-based organizations. The Standards mentioned offer a robust framework to evaluating the Latest Innovations in Data Centre Landscape, Cloud Operations, Digital Transformation Journey and highlighting exemplary achievements in the Data Center & Cloud Innovation landscape. The submissions are for the Work/Initiatives/Decisions undertaken for the period for 1st April 2024 to 31st March 2025.

Award Nomination Process

Businesses can nominate themselves for the awards, with the nomination process open to businesses that have presence in India.

Screening And Evaluation Process

All nominations will undergo screening based on eligibility criteria, including elements such as Innovation, Vision, Execution, Impact and Results. A Panel of expert and impartial jury members will conduct the screening process. These criteria are essential for evaluating nominations across each category, enabling the jury to make informed assessments. Nominees will be informed and may be requested to provide additional information if necessary. The evaluation will prioritize measurable data to ensure fairness and objectivity. Nominees that do not meet eligibility criteria will be disqualified.

Award Ceremony For The Winners

The ET Edge Data Center & Cloud Innovation Awards platform aims to recognize organizations and Individuals that who have demonstrated impactful work in the field of Data Centre & Cloud Innovation Initiatives. This platform offers businesses a chance to spotlight their accomplishments in the cloud technologies, modern data architectures or emerging infrastructure innovations landscape, gaining recognition for their valuable contributions to the industry.

Winners will be revealed during a formal ceremony, where they will be presented with trophies commemorating their exceptional performance within their respective categories. The announcement of the winners will also be shared on social media platforms to showcase and promote the recognized businesses.

Nominations are closed

Nomination Form

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Nominee Details
Nominator Information
Summary of nominee’s cloud/dc contributions in the past 12 months
E.g., cost savings %, uptime %, carbon reduction, scale of influence (users, teams led), project outcomes
Leadership & Qualitative Insights (150 words each)
Upload up to 2 files (PDF/BIO/Case Study, max 20 MB each) OR URLs
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Accepted file types: pdf, doc, Max. file size: 20 MB, Max. files: 3.
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